Concert “Sound Bridges – Echo and Departure”

Season Opening Concert to Welcome Spring. Followed by an Apéro from 8:00 PM on the church terrace.

Concert “Sound Bridges – Echo and Departure”

Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 – Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 is one of the late masterpieces of his oeuvre and ranks among the central works of Romantic chamber music. Composed in 1891 in Bad Ischl, it marks a special moment in Brahms’s creative life: the composer had largely withdrawn from composing when the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld inspired him to embark on a final, intensely creative phase. During this period, alongside the Quintet, Brahms also composed the Clarinet Trio, Op. 114, and the two Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 120.
Brahms does not treat the clarinet as a virtuosic soloist, but rather as an equal voice within a string ensemble. The close timbral fusion with viola and cello, the warm middle register, and a restrained expressiveness shape the character of the work.

The four movements unfold a remarkable inner coherence:
The opening movement (Allegro) is characterised by dense motivic development and a dark, autumnal basic tone. The Adagio is among the most intimate slow movements Brahms ever wrote, featuring an almost vocal clarinet line of great calm and depth. In the third movement, dance-like lightness and subtle irony alternate with sudden shifts in mood. The final movement, in variation form, thematically recalls the opening and imparts to the work a conscious character of farewell.

Stylistically, the Quintet exemplifies Brahms’s late concentration of expression: few outward effects, but great inner tension, subtle rhythmic nuance, and a sound language often described as melancholic, reconciled, and suffused with quiet warmth. In its significance, it is frequently compared with Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, K. 581, though it differs through a distinctly darker and more introspective expression.
To this day, the work is regarded as a pinnacle of clarinet chamber music and as a touchstone of refined ensemble culture. Balance, inner calm, and the shared “breathing” of the voices are essential, while virtuosity gives way to depth, transparency, and musical dialogue.
In juxtaposition with the world premiere of the quintet by Matthias Mueller da Minusio, a multifaceted dialogue emerges between late Romanticism and the present day—entirely in keeping with the concert title:

“Sound Bridges – Echo & Departure.”
World Premiere | Matthias Mueller da Minusio | “Passione per JB”
Quintet for clarinet and strings (2023)

At the end of his life, Johannes Brahms created with the Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115, a work of consummate maturity. For composers, it remains a lifelong inspiration to learn from the masters and to grow through engagement with them.
Matthias Mueller da Minusio’s quintet Passione per JB does not present itself as a copy, but as a conscious approach to Brahms’s universally known and beloved quintet. Brahms himself composed his work after hearing Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, performed by friends such as Joseph Joachim (violin) and Richard Mühlfeld (clarinet). This listening experience became the point of departure for his late works for clarinet.
Mueller da Minusio takes up this historical impulse and translates it into a contemporary musical language. Passione per JB is at once remembrance, homage, and continuation of musical thought—an echo arising from the past and newly shaped in the present.

Ensemble
Annika Starc – Violin I | Caterina Bartoletti – Violin II | Ione Diamantini – Viola | Matthias Mueller da Minusio – Clarinet | Orfeo Mandozzi – Cello

Music that connects – a place of silence that inspires.
Admission is free. All lovers of music are warmly welcome.
Organiser: Associazione MUSICA al CUORE | www.musica-al-cuore.com
In collaboration with the Capuchin Friars of the Madonna del Sasso and the Municipality of Orselina.